You say “a-mee-cus,” Justice Breyer says “a-mike-us”

As readers of this website are nicely conscious, the Supreme Court docket is deeply divided on a variety of consequential points. How ought to the justices contemplate historical past when they’re deciphering the Structure? When ought to the court docket grant requests for momentary emergency reduction, and the way a lot of an evidence ought to it present when it acts on these requests? How a lot energy ought to courts and the chief department wield?

With out downplaying the seriousness of those points, there are different – considerably much less weighty – points that additionally intractably divide the justices, together with the legal professionals, journalists, and students who observe the court docket.

The “emergency docket”?

To search out such a problem, you don’t must go any additional than the requests for momentary emergency reduction talked about above. These requests (together with principally every thing else that isn’t on the court docket’s deserves docket) have lengthy been generally known as the “emergency docket,” as Justice Elena Kagan referred to it throughout a latest look at a judicial convention in California. However in his personal look at a judicial convention in Missouri, Justice Brett Kavanaugh referred to it because the “interim orders docket” – maybe a nod to the truth that the court docket usually takes weeks, if not months, to rule on the requests, undermining the concept there’s an “emergency” at hand.

Neither justice used the time period “shadow docket,” a phrase coined a decade in the past by College of Chicago legislation professor William Baude and made well-known within the 2023 bestseller of the identical identify by Georgetown legislation professor Stephen Vladeck. (Although Kagan used this phrase in a 2021 dissent.) Baude supposed the phrase to sign the extent to which the court docket operated outdoors of public view – within the shadows, so to talk – however some justices should not a fan of it. In a 2021 speech, Justice Samuel Alito criticized members of the media for utilizing the “sinister” phrase, contending that it depicted the court docket as “having been captured by a harmful cabal that resorts to sneaky and improper strategies to get its methods.”

Within the final yr or so, as requests for momentary reduction have each elevated and continued to maneuver at comparatively gradual paces, different court docket watchers have proposed different phrases to explain the emergency docket.

Even the Dispatch Prolonged Authorized Universe, as we wish to name it right here at SCOTUSblog, is split. David French, the New York Instances columnist who’s a “everlasting visitor” on the Advisory Opinions podcast, prefers the time period “fairness docket,” as a result of the court docket considers (amongst different issues) the equity of granting reduction.

David Lat, the creator of the Authentic Jurisdiction Substack and the founding father of the authorized information website Above the Regulation, thinks it needs to be the “short-order docket.” In a latest Substack publish, Lat embraced the comparability to cooking. “Observers of the Court docket want to recollect,” he wrote, “that what we’re getting on the short-order docket isn’t the identical as what comes out of the deserves docket, the place the justices take pleasure in full briefing, oral argument, and far more time.”

SCOTUSblog govt editor (and Lat’s husband) Zach Shemtob is a fan of the time period “interim-relief docket,” on the speculation that it most precisely describes what the court docket is doing with requests for emergency (or emergency-ish) appeals. And because the editor, Shemtob had the final phrase in SCOTUSblog’s StatPack, referring to it because the “so-called emergency/shadow docket.”

Overseas languages are onerous

Based on one 2017 story, lower than 3% of U.S. college students examine Latin. That will assist to elucidate the disagreements on the right way to pronounce two key authorized phrases which are frequent in Supreme Court docket proceedings. The primary is “amicus,” that means “buddy of the court docket.” It’s the title of the podcast co-hosted by Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern of Slate, who pronounce it “am-a-cus.”

Chief Justice John Roberts and Kavanaugh voted collectively 91% of the time throughout the 2024-25 time period. It’s maybe no shock, then, that in addition they pronounce “amicus” the identical approach: “a-mee-cus.” (Lawyer Roman Martinez, who clerked for each males, additionally says it that approach.)

Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired from the court docket in 2022, took a distinct method to the phrase. He pronounced it “a-mike-us” – a pronunciation that his fellow justices hardly ever, if ever, imitated.

One surefire technique to keep away from the controversy? Eschew the legalese and simply say “buddy of the court docket.”

Attorneys searching for overview of a lower-court resolution file what is called a “petition for a writ of certiorari” – a quick searching for overview of that call. Like “amicus,” the phrase “certiorari” is Latin, that means “to be extra totally knowledgeable.” If the petition is granted, then the decrease court docket sends the Supreme Court docket the report within the case in order that it may well totally overview it.

That course of could also be comparatively simple, however the pronunciation of “certiorari” isn’t, as explored in an Advisory Opinions episode in June. The justices pronounce the phrase a minimum of three alternative ways. Justice Sonia Sotomayor says “cer-sha-are-ree,” whereas each Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Alito say “cer-shore-rahr-ree.” Roberts, for his half, makes use of “cer-shore-rare-rye.”

Not like the justices, many people by no means must say the phrase out loud. In the event you do, there are a minimum of two different choices: You should use the favored abbreviation “cert.” – about which there isn’t a dispute – or (as soon as once more) skip the legalese altogether and confer with a “petition for overview.”

Pal or foe?

What do you name the lawyer sitting on the opposite facet of the lectern from you? In some unspecified time in the future after his arrival on the court docket, Roberts – maybe hoping to foster an environment of collegiality – started to confer with an arguing lawyer’s opponent as “your buddy on the opposite facet.” It’s a little bit of a mouthful, significantly once you attempt to flip it right into a possessive (“your buddy on the opposite facet’s”?), so it’s typically shortened to “your buddy.”

Not surprisingly, legal professionals who argue recurrently earlier than the court docket have adopted the chief justice’s lead. And so have a number of of the justices. In the course of the 2024-25 time period, Kavanaugh, Jackson, and Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch all made references to “your buddy (or mates) on the opposite facet.”

In the course of the 2024-25 time period, Sotomayor agreed with Roberts in solely 50% of carefully divided instances, in keeping with SCOTUSblog’s Stat Pack. She parted methods with Roberts on this query too, opting as an alternative to make use of the phrases “your adversary” and “opposing counsel,” that are generally used elsewhere however arguably much less collegial.

Right here too there appears to be a reasonably simple different (which the justices themselves additionally typically use): the lawyer’s precise identify.

Sound bites

Amicus:

— Throughout arguments in A.J.T. v. Osseo Space Faculties, Faculty District, Unbiased Faculty District No. 279, Roberts says amicus at 00:03:56 and Martinez, a former clerk for Roberts and Kavanaugh, says it at 00:04:20.

— Throughout arguments in Biden v. Texas, Kavanaugh says amicus at 01:00:17.

— Throughout arguments in Berger v. North Carolina State Convention of the NAACP, Breyer says amicus at 01:05:28.

Certiorari:

— Throughout arguments in A.J.T. v. Osseo Space Faculties, Faculty District, Unbiased Faculty District No. 279, Sotomayor says certiorari at 01:14:03.

— Throughout arguments in Martin v. United States, Jackson says certiorari at 00:38:14.

— Throughout arguments in Starbucks Company v. McKinney, Alito says certiorari at 00:30:24.

— Throughout arguments in Riley v. Bondi, Roberts says certiorari at 00:07:35.

Pal (or adversary) on the opposite facet:

— Throughout arguments in Kennedy v. Braidwood Administration, Barrett says buddy on the opposite facet at 00:56:37. Legal professional Hashim Mooppan says it at 00:19:52.

— Throughout arguments in A.J.T. v. Osseo Space Faculties, Faculty District, Unbiased Faculty District No. 279, Gorsuch says mates on the opposite facet at 01:05:05.

— Throughout arguments in Esteras v. United States, Kavanaugh says buddy on the opposite facet at 01:04:06.

— Throughout arguments in Perttu v. Richards, Jackson says buddy on the opposite facet at 00:59:18.

— Throughout arguments in Cunningham v. Cornell College, Sotomayor says your adversary at 00:27:33. She says opposing counsel at 00:16:44 throughout arguments in Bouarfa v. Mayorkas.

— Throughout arguments in Martin v. United States, legal professional Frederick Liu says my buddy at 00:26:30.